Peter Klein wrote a good article for anyone panicking over the lies propagated by eleced officials seeking to use the impending debt ceiling for political ends:

In following the debates over raising the US debt ceiling, I’m struck by the frequent claim that defaulting on public debt is unthinkable because of the “signal” that would send. If you can’t rely on the T-bill, what can you rely on? Debt instruments backed by the “full faith and credit” of the United States are supposed to be risk-free — almost magically so — somehow transcending the vagaries of ordinary debt markets. The Treasury bill, in other words, has become a myth and symbol, just like the US Constitution.

I find this line of reasoning unpersuasive. A T-bill is a bond just like any other bond. Corporations, municipalities, and other issuers default on bonds all the time, and the results are hardly catastrophic.

I once knew someone that would brag to me about their intelligence (and talk to me dismissively, as if I wasn't as smart as her). When I first met this person, they said they obtained a 99.95 percentile ranking for their high school exams, putting them in the top .05% of the country. However recently I found out that this person didn't receive a 99.95, but rather a 99.2. In other words, even though she was belittling my intelligence, her own score was lower than my score of 99.65! I now think anyone who brags about themselves is deeply insecure and probably stupid.